After the massive Russian strikes on Ukraine, the G7 meets in emergency this Tuesday
Eva Deschamps / October 11, 2022
The Russian bombardment on a scale not seen in months on Kiev and other Ukrainian cities will be at the center of the discussions of the G7 members on Tuesday, which British Prime Minister Liz Truss will call on not to "weaken one iota ».
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to participate in this virtual emergency meeting scheduled from 12:00 GMT, Berlin said.
According to London, Liz Truss, who has been head of government for a month, is expected to say that "nobody wants peace more than Ukraine. And for our part, we must not waver one iota in our determination to help it win.
Deadly Russian shelling on a scale not seen in months hit Ukraine on Monday morning, killing at least 11 people and injuring 89, according to the latest police toll, including five in Kiev, targeted for the first time since June 26 by missiles.
"They are trying to destroy us all, to wipe us off the face of the earth," Zelensky reacted Monday morning as Russian missiles hit Ukrainian cities.
But "Ukraine cannot be intimidated", he then launched in his evening address, promising to "repair everything that has been destroyed".
Russian President Vladimir Putin justified the "massive" bombings by the "terrorist" attack by Kiev the day before on the bridge linking Russian territory to the southern Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Chmygal said eleven major infrastructures were damaged in eight regions, in addition to the capital.
Ukraine announced that it would stop electricity exports to Europe as a result of the strikes, while power cuts affected many regions.
These bombings have provoked indignation in the West.
The European Union said they amounted to "war crimes" for which those responsible must be "held accountable", calling on Belarus "not to be a party to the brutal aggression led by Russia".
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres denounced "an unacceptable escalation".
All the countries of the United Nations met Monday in New York in an emergency General Assembly.
The Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, accused Russia of being "a terrorist state that must be dissuaded in the strongest possible way".
NATO, which Ukraine is seeking to join, condemned the "horrific and indiscriminate attacks" against civilian infrastructure and promised its support to Kiev "for as long as it takes", according to its Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
U.S. President Joe Biden promised Zelensky "advanced systems" of air defense, according to a White House statement.
Germany must also deliver urgently a first air defense system promised long ago.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told reporters Monday that he fears "the events of the last few hours could lead to further displacement."
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, more than 7.6 million Ukrainian refugees have been registered as refugees across Europe.
While a number of these people have since returned home, some 4.2 million Ukrainians have temporary protection status in the EU.
These "deliberate strikes by Russia on the whole of Ukrainian territory and against civilians, it is a profound change in the nature of this war," commented French President Emmanuel Macron, who urgently convened a defense council Monday evening.
Putin on Sunday accused Ukraine of organizing the explosion Saturday morning that destroyed part of the expensively built Crimean Bridge, which opened in 2018. The attack left three people dead.
Kiev has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.
The Russian president promised "severe" retaliation for further Ukrainian attacks on Russia. The strikes "achieved their objective", the Russian Ministry of Defense assured.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the current number 2 on the Moscow Security Council, went further, promising that Monday's strikes were only a "first episode" and calling for the "total dismantling of Ukraine's political regime. »
Of the 84 Russian missiles fired against Ukraine, 43 were shot down. Of the 24 Russian drones, 13 were shot down," said the Ukrainian president on Monday evening.
Half a dozen blasts were heard in Kiev, with strikes on several districts including the city center, which included pulverizing a children's playground in Taras Shevchenko Park. In a nearby street, a missile dug a crater, a lifeless body lying under a thermal blanket.
Ukraine assured that Russia was conducting these massive strikes in desperation in the face of its recent setbacks on several fronts.
An ally of Moscow but having so far refrained from sending troops in support of Moscow, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko accused Kiev of preparing an attack against his country, adding that as a result Minsk and Moscow would deploy Russian-Belarusian troops, without specifying their location.
He also accused Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine of preparing "terrorist" attacks and a "military uprising" in Belarus.